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Scattered
Scattered is an episode of the TV series, Battlestar Galactica, and aired during the show's second season. Plot With Commander William Adama shot in the chest by Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, Colonel Saul Tigh is forced to take command as a Basestar arrives. Col. Tigh has the fleet take an emergency faster-than-light jump to escape, despite the stranded survey team on the planet Kobol. When Galactica jumps, however, the rest of the fleet is not there. Col. Tigh interrogates Lt. Valerii in the brig. Horrified at her own betrayal, she urges him to kill her, but he refuses. A medic is forced to operate on Adama in Dr. Cottle's absence. In a sequence of flashbacks, Tigh recalls how Adama got Tigh back into the Colonial Fleet following the Cylon War. In order to find the fleet, Tigh has Galactica jump back to orbit around Kobol with the ship's computers networked together (something Adama would have vehemently opposed because of the dangers of Cylon hacking) to calculate the jump coordinates before the Cylons can destroy Galactica. He also paroles Apollo, still in the brig for his attempted mutiny, so that he can command the Vipers in the coming battle. As the battle rages, the Cylons attempt to hack Galactica s network, but Lieutenant Gaeta's software firewall appears to hold. A Cylon Heavy Raider crashes into Galactica shortly before Galactica jumps and meets the fleet. A group of Cylon Centurions emerges from the Heavy Raider. On Kobol, Crashdown orders the survivors to take cover in a nearby forest. In an attempt to recover medical supplies that they left behind, he has Tarn, Chief Tyrol and Cally retrieve them, but Cylons kill Tarn before they get back. On Caprica, Helo stops Starbuck from shooting Caprica-Boomer. As they argue, Boomer steals Starbuck's Cylon Raider, stranding them. Production The story and script of Scattered went through considerable development as pre-production of Season 2 progressed. The main premise of the episode, that Galactica has jumped to separate coordinates from the fleet, was based on an initial pitch for Season 1 by Ron D. Moore. The idea was picked up early in development of Season 2. During development, the opening story arc swelled from five episodes to seven, with "Home" becoming a two-parter and "Valley of Darkness" developing out of "Scattered". This was the result of Moore objecting to a quick and tidy resolution to the cliffhanger endings in "Kobal's Last Gleaming" - Tyrol and Dr. Baltar trapped on Kobol; President Roslin being overthrown; Lt. Thrace and Lt. Agathon trapped on Caprica; Commander Adama being shot and Lt. Valerii being detained. One subplot that was removed was a series of flashbacks experienced by Col. Tigh, recalling how he met Cmdr. Adama in a bar fight on Caprica while they were in the merchant navy, with the bar fight being the Scattered teaser as a trick for audiences expecting a direct continuation from Adama's shooting. Rather than follow on directly after "Kobol's Last Gleaming" as the audience would expect, the writers instead wanted to introduce audiences with a series of flashback sequences taking them to Caprica 20 years in the past. In the scene, Adama and Tigh were still in the merchant navy and would meet in a bar fight on Caprica and the development of their relationship in the past and explain why Tigh was fit for service when, previously, more focus was aimed at his alcoholism. In the last of these scenes, Tigh was to be close to suicide before being welcomed into the fleet; an extra was cast to be asleep in his bed, picked to have brunette hair to indicate he had not yet met Ellen. These scenes were ultimately cut, with one reason being issues about the make-up given to Hogan and Olmos, and the idea of casting new actors for "Young Tigh" and "Young Adama" had already been rejected. These scenes were to aid the two-man dynamic, and explain how Tigh has more violent tendencies, which Adama is able to keep under control. Tigh's beating of Boomer was to fit alongside these flashbacks. Continuing with techniques from Season 1, the Caprica sequences were filmed with filters to give a sickly hue indicative of the oncoming nuclear winter; the lush woodland on Kobal was in fact the same woodland as used on Caprica. Two versions of the battle scene over Kobol were filmed - one heavy and one light in pilot chatter. Writers argued that with the assassination attempt - by one of their own - the pilots wouldn't have a competitive feeling. Cast *Edward James Olmos as "Commander William Adama" *Mary McDonnell as "President Laura Roslin" *Katee Sackhoff as "Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace" *Jamie Bamber as "Cpt. Lee 'Apollo' Adama" *James Callis as "Dr. Gaius Baltar" *Tricia Helfer as "Number Six" *Grace Park as "Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii" *Michael Hogan as "Colonel Saul Tigh" *Aaron Douglas as "Chief Galen Tyrol" *Tahmoh Penikett as "Lt. Karl 'Helo' Agathon" *Paul Campbell as "Billy Keikeya" *Nicki Clyne as "Crewman Specialist Cally Henderson" *Alessandro Juliani as "Lt. Felix Gaeta" *Kandyse McClure as "Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla" *Sam Witwer as "Crashdown" *Kate Vernon as "Ellen Tigh" *Alonso Oyarzun as "Socinus" *Kerry Norton as "Paramedic Layne Ishay" *Kurt Evans as "Paramedic Kim" *Chris Shields as "Cpl. Venner" *Luciana Carro as "Louanne 'Kat' Katraine" *Bodie Olmos as "Brendan 'Hot Dog' Constanza" *Jennifer Halley as "Seelix" *Warren Christie as "Tarn" *Ty Olsson as "Capt. Kelly" *Nicholas Treeshin as "Sgt. Watkins" *Michael Tayles as "Flyboy" *Leah Cairns as "Racetrack" *Aleks Paunovic as "Marine Sgt. Fischer" Further notes * Ronald D. Moore recorded a podcast, which can be found here. Sources Category:Season 2 episodes